


The Doctor's Wife

by silveryink



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s06e04 The Doctor's Wife, F/M, Light Angst, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Reunions, Romance, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 07:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17240471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: The TARDIS felt something calling to her. The call was stretched thin, coming from outside the universe. Not the Void, nor another universe, but outside. She’d seen this coming since she had grown into a full-sized TARDIS, and she sang for her Wolf as she waited for what came next.





	The Doctor's Wife

Rose had left the TARDIS free to drift in the Time Vortex, and she’d gone to clear out her room and sort out the Doctor’s things. She hadn’t been running, not exactly, but the truth was painful to face. She pulled out an old box from one of the cupboards with a frown. There was nothing odd about the box – it was an ordinary cardboard crate. Quite unremarkable.

And yet…

Rose yanked off the tape in one smooth motion and peered inside. Old clothes, shoes… she caught sight of a blue leather jacket and lifted it to the light, memories flooding her mind. She’d worn the jacket when she’d gone dimension hopping. When she’d helped save Earth, _her_ Earth – not the one she lived in now, in Pete’s Universe (the Doctor had called it Pete’s World, but Rose objected since it was a universe and not one world in particular).

She had stayed back with the Doctor, the one born of his and Donna’s energies. It wasn’t as weird as it sounded, though he’d had a tendency to slip into her speech patterns sometimes. It had confused her to no end, but it was endearing nonetheless. He was, after all, still the Doctor.

The clothes weren’t the only thing in the box. She found a small, circular button made of white and yellow plastic, hung on a chain. She gazed as emotions tangled together, bittersweet, just like every other time she remembered her Doctor. _A human life_.

Too bad she wasn’t human. Not anymore.

...

The TARDIS felt something calling to her. The call was stretched thin, coming from outside the universe. Not the Void, nor another universe, but outside. She’d seen this coming since she had grown into a full-sized TARDIS, and she sang for her Wolf as she waited for what came next.

Rose made her way to the console, her free hand sliding across the flat of the panel. “What is it, dear?”

She let her core flow through the console into her Wolf. Gold light streamed into Rose’s eyes, and she gasped – remembering the Game Station, how the Time Vortex had changed her, how all that power had stopped and restarted her heart and slowly changed her physiology.

The TARDIS gently reminded her Wolf that she and the Time Vortex were not the same. While they were connected like this, she and Rose could converse in a manner that was close to speech. Telepathy was, she assumed, another word for it, since neither of them spoke out loud.

When Rose calmed down, the TARDIS pulled the Time Vortex from her core, separating it from her consciousness. She poured it into the small button Rose held, the – what had she called it? – dimension hopper. Rose gasped, understanding her idea. She pressed the button and disappeared from inside the TARDIS’ shell with a flash.

The lights dimmed, and the shell sailed to a lone part of the universe, no longer habited by the being that existed throughout time.

...

The dimension hopper shouldn’t have worked, but the TARDIS had long since made it clear that she didn't play by the rules, as long as the universe remained in one piece. When Rose landed, she felt the energy swirl within her once, before leaving. The TARDIS’ consciousness was beautiful and glorious, and she wondered why she’d left. The dimension hopper lay in her hands, with only a glimmer of energy left inside.

“Are you all right, dearie?” A voice asked her.

She looked up to see… someone. The person looked human enough, but her instincts – and the obvious change in surroundings – suggested otherwise. “Who are you?”

“I’m Auntie,” the person said. Rose raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question the name. “You’ve come a long way out, love.”

“Yeah…” she muttered. “Listen, d’you happen to know if anyone else stays here?” On any other occasion, she would’ve said _lived_ , but she doubted anyone would live in a dump like this. She didn’t voice it out loud, however, in case Auntie would be offended.

“Well, there’s Uncle, and Nephew, and House.”

She wasn’t sure if she’d heard the last one right.  “I’m sorry, _house?_ ”

“I am House,” a deep voice rumbled from beneath her. She jumped. “I am the ground you stand on, the air you breathe.”

“That doesn’t sound creepy at all,” she muttered, wondering why she was even surprised. “Right, so you’re the consciousness of this planet.”

“That I am. You are welcome here, traveller.”

A sentient asteroid. Now all she had to do was locate her TARDIS.

...

“Thief! Thief!” yelled a high voice. Rose started badly and ran in the direction of the voice. Auntie hobbled behind her, not able to keep up with her speed. Years of running with her Doctor had built up her stamina, not to mention her changed physiology.

“You’re my Thief!” yelled the same voice. Rose skidded to a stop as she saw a young woman dressed in period attire ran up to a man in a tweed jacket and… was that a bowtie?

“She’s dangerous,” Auntie called out. Rose narrowed her eyes. She  had mentioned someone named Uncle, and Nephew, and she’d already met House. Somehow, she got the feeling that this woman wasn’t any of the others. So who was she?

The woman suddenly ran up to her and cocked her head sideways, as though sizing her up. Rose blinked, not sure of what to do. “Look at you,” she breathed. “Goodbye. No, not goodbye, what’s the other one?” Before Rose could react, the woman grabbed her and kissed her. She squeaked but didn’t pull away, distracted by the familiar presence in her mind that strengthened slightly at the contact.

A set of hands pulled her away harshly. Rose stumbled slightly, catching herself on a… she pulled her hand away, realizing that she didn’t want to know. The man in the tweed jacket – why did Rose find him familiar as well? – slowly approached them. “Why am I a thief?” he asked.

“Watch out. Keep back from her. Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person,” another man spoke up as the woman yanked herself out of his grip.  Rose supposed that this was Uncle.

The rest of them ignored him. “What have I stolen?” the man continued.

“Me.” Rose raised an eyebrow as the woman began to ramble. “You’re going to steal me. No, you _have_ stolen me. Oh, tenses are difficult, aren’t they?”

The man looked about as confused as she was. He seemed to have not spotted her.

“Sorry, my dove,” Auntie interrupted, “She’s off ‘er ‘ead. They call me Auntie.”

“And I’m Uncle. I’m… everybody’s uncle. Just keep back from this one, she bites,” said the patched-up-looking man in a disinterested tone.

“Do I?” The woman sounded pleased. “Excellent.” She promptly bit the tweed man’s (she really needed to come up with a better name than that) ear. The man let out a cry of surprise, and the others hauled her away from him.

“Biting’s excellent,” she mused. “Like kissing, but there’s a winner.”

“So sorry,” Uncle said, “she’s doolaly.”

“I am _not_ doolaly! I’m… I’mmmm…” she clicked her tongue in exasperation. “It’s on the tip of my tongue…”

“Idris,” Auntie called, stopping her before she could do anything else.

“You’re angry,” Idris told Tweed Man. “No, you’re not… but you _will_ be angry. The little boxes will make you angry.”

“Sorry? The little what, _boxes_?”

But Idris didn’t deign to respond. “Oh, ho, your chin is hilarious. It means the smell of dust after rain,” she added as an afterthought.

“What does?” Another new voice.

“Petrichor.”

“But… I didn’t ask.”

“Not yet, but you will.”

Rose blinked.

“Now, Idris, I think you should rest,” Auntie said.

“Rest. Good idea, I’ll see if there’s an off switch,” Idris barely finished as she collapsed in Auntie’s arms in a dead faint.

“Is that it?” Uncle asked emotionlessly. “She’s dead now. So sad.”

Rose stared. The last new voice knelt by Idris, presumably looking for a pulse. “She’s still breathing.”

“Nephew, take Idris somewhere she cannot bite people,” Uncle ordered.

A familiar looking figure methodically lifted Idris to take her… someplace else. Even in the dim light, Rose could see the tentacles and the small sphere of light that glowed green.

“You’re an Ood!” exclaimed Tweed Man excitedly. He turned to the others. “He’s okay, he’s an Ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Can’t you talk?” Tweed Man fidgeted with the sphere for a moment. “Oh, I see, it’s broken.”

Rose sighed. The man seemed to notice her for the first time, and he looked at her with an inviting smile. “Oh, hello, I’m the Doctor, what’s your name?”

Her heart could have stopped. “Doctor?” she stepped into the (faint) light. “It’s Rose.”

...

The Doctor stared at Rose. How hadn’t he noticed her before? He should have noticed her before. Well, he had been distracted by – what was her name? – Idris, but that wasn’t an excuse. This was, through some miracle, Rose Tyler herself.

“I – Rose…” he trailed off. It didn’t make sense. She was supposed to be with the Metacrisis Doctor, in Pete’s World. How was she here? _Why_ was she here?

“You’ve regenerated,” she said softly. “I like the look.”

He preened. “Well. I had to pick something new.”

Rose turned to Amy and Rory. “Is this the only look he sports now?”

“Sometimes the bow tie is blue,” Amy responded blithely. “And he likes fezzes. Hi, I’m Amy Pond. This is my husband, Rory.”

Rory raised a hand in a small wave. Rose grinned and waved back. “Nice to see he’s made friends. I’m Rose. Rose Tyler.”

“How?” The Doctor interrupted. Rose shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea. The TARDIS just…” she paled. “Oh my God, the TARDIS…”

“She’s okay, she’s right here. But her consciousness seems-”

“To have disappeared?” Rose guessed. “She did that to me, too.”

“What do you-” _Bad Wolf._ His eyes widened. “Not-”

Rose smiled softly, sadly. “I’m… different. Physiologically. More like you.”

The Doctor couldn’t believe his ears. “You…” something struck him. “What about…”

Rose’s smile became even sadder. “We had a good life,” she said. “He stayed with me for all of his. But I couldn’t…” she stopped, breath hitching as she tried not to cry. She hated crying in front of others, something that time hadn’t changed.

The Doctor moved forward, not sure of what to do. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Not your fault,” she mumbled. “You wouldn’t _believe_ how much I had to tell him that, in Pete’s Universe.”

“I thought we were calling it Pete’s World,” he said, and Rose automatically smiled. The Doctor grinned, before it melted into a confused frown. Rose tried not to giggle, he looked adorable like this.

“How did you get into this universe?”

“Doctor, it’s a bubble,” she pointed out. He shrugged. “Semantics.”

She shook her head. “I’m not entirely sure, you know… the TARDIS merged her Matrix with me, and poured the Time Vortex into the dimension hopper.”

“You still have one of those things?” he asked, chagrined.

“It stopped working after the whole Stolen Earth thing,” she said absently. “And, yeah, we’re calling it the ‘Stolen Earth’ thing.”

Amy and Rory looked a little lost, so Rose decided to explain things to them a little. After summarizing everything as succinctly as possible, they seemed to understand. Rory raised a hand. Rose nodded at him. “So, let me get this straight – you’re the Doctor’s wife?”

“Yep,” the two of them said together. They grinned at each other.

“And you’ve been reunited after how many years apart, exactly?”

“A hundred, on my side,” the Doctor said.

Rose did the calculations in her head. She’d been with the metacrisis Doctor for… seventy years – he’d aged slower than the average human – and she’d been alone for another twenty. “Ninety,” she said. “Not that far off.”

The Ponds nodded slowly. “Right.”

Rose suddenly felt a whisper at the back of her mind, and spun around to face whatever it was. The Doctor was doing the same. Voices echoed from somewhere inside the assorted junk and they exchanged a look, slipping into a familiar routine. “Uh, Doctor,” Amy asked hesitantly, “what’s that?”

“It’s not just the Corsair,” the Doctor said gravely. At Rose’s frown, he explained, “Long story short, got a mail, turned out to be a distress call, ended up here, on this… bubble.”

“The Corsair’s the one with the _ouroboros_ tattoo, right?”

“Yep, that’s the one.”

“But that’s… there are many voices. Not just the Corsair’s,” Rory pointed out.

“I know,” The Doctor said grimly. “Because somewhere close by, there are lots and lots of Time Lords.”

Rose gaped. “I… well, we’d better see what it is, then.”

...

“ _Thief!_ ”

The Doctor absently shushed her, though she was nowhere near them.

“So, as soon as the TARDIS is refueled, we go, yeah?” Rory asked. Rose didn’t blame him, the asteroid was pretty creepy.

“No, if there are other Time Lords here, I need to help them. They need me.”

Rose’s heart sank. She too had heard the voices, but she knew that something was… _off_ , about them. Their telepathic presences didn’t feel like the Doctor’s. “Doctor…” Amy began, but he cut her off.

“I think I left my sonic in the TARDIS,” he said. “It’s in my jacket.”

“You’re wearing your jacket,” Rory pointed out.

“My other jacket,” he amended.

“You have two of those?”

Rose tried not to giggle, despite the seriousness of the situation.

“Okay, I’ll get it,” Amy said. “But be careful.”

“Let Rory go with you. I’m not too sure about how safe this place is.”

Amy turned to Rose. “I’ll make sure he’s careful,” she promised. Amy nodded. The two of them exchanged numbers so that they could contact each other if necessary, and Amy grabbed Rory’s arm and dragged him towards the TARDIS. Rose and the Doctor assumed their usual stances and carefully wove through the maze of corridors.

After a while, the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and remote locked the TARDIS. Rose raised an eyebrow. “Still have that setting?”

The Doctor shrugged.

“People don’t exactly like it,” Rose said. “I know I didn’t. But I know that it’s… well, it’s probably the best thing to do, now. I don’t trust this place.”

He shot her a grateful look. Rose pulled him down another corridor. “This way,” she said. He let her lead him into a shabby room towards a small cabinet. He frowned. “I doubt they’d all fit here,” he mused.

Rose shrugged. “The telepathic traces start here, unless you picked up something else?”

Right, she was telepathic now. “No, I haven’t,” he said, and sonicked the cabinet open.

_The little boxes will make you angry_ , Idris had said. Staring at the stacked psychic containers, his fury climbing at the deception, he realised what she’d meant. Rose sucked in a breath. She’d known that it was a far stretch, but this was… awful.

The Doctor heard two steps of mismatched footsteps behind them and spoke without looking. “Just admiring your Time Lord distress signal collection. Nice job,” he added bitterly. “ _Brilliant_ job. Really thought I had some friends here.”

Rose automatically moved to hold his hand. It wasn’t the hand she was used to holding, but it was familiar, like the Doctor was. They slotted perfectly and the Doctor glanced down, relaxing slightly at the reiminder. _You have me._

“This is what the Ood translator picked up, isn’t it?” Rose asked. “Cries for help from the long dead.” Her eyes narrowed. “How many Time Lords have you lured here this way, and _what happened to them all_?” The last question came out as a growl, and the Doctor was glad that Rose was on his side. He’d forgotten how terrifying she could be sometimes.

“House,” Auntie said. “House is kind and he is wise.”

“House repairs you when you break, yes, you told us,” Rose interrupted. “But how-” she remembered something from decades past, and her stomach churned. “Oh.”

“How does he repair you?” the Doctor mused.

“Doctor…”

“Hmm?”

“Do you remember… Reinette?” The Doctor frowned, before his eyes widened. Rose could see the exact moment when the pieces clicked in his mind. _The ship_.

“You have the eyes of a twenty-year-old,” he told Uncle.

“Thank you,” the man said emotionlessly.

“No, I mean it literally. Your eyes are thirty years younger than the rest of you.”

“How can you tell?” Rose wrinkled her nose.

The Doctor shrugged neutrally, before continuing, “Your ears don’t match, your right arm is two inches longer than your left, and how’s your dancing – ‘cause you’ve got two left feet.”

“Patchwork people,” Rose said. “You’ve been repaired and patched up far too many times.”

“I doubt there’s anything left of what used to be you.” The Doctor cocked his head. “I had an umbrella like you once.”

“Okay, that one was creepy.”

“The handle was broken!”

“Who fixes it with a _Furby_ , those things were made in the depths of-”

“Oh, now, it’s been a great arm for me, this,” a small smile danced across her lips. The arm was muscular and wider than the rest of her, and it had a distinct tattoo curling around its wrist.

“Corsair.”

“He was a strapping big bloke, wasn’t he, Uncle?”

“Big fellow,” Uncle agreed.

“I got the arm an’ Uncle got the spine and the kidneys.”

Rose looked sick, as opposed to the fury boiling in her husband’s eyes. “You gave me hope, and you took it away. That’s enough to make anyone dangerous.” Rose gingerly took his hand, squeezing it gently. “God knows what it will do to me. Basically, _run_.”

“Poor old Time Lords,” Uncle crooned. “Too late. House is too clever.”

Rose and the Doctor exchanged a terrified look and sprinted towards the TARDIS. Rose was dialing Amy’s number, but she couldn’t reach her. She swore and skidded to a halt just in time for her to not crash into the Doctor, feeling a telepathic presence brush against her mind.

“Did you feel-”

“This way,” Rose said tersely, sprinting in the other direction. They emerged in front of a small cell, where Idris lay.

“How did you know about the boxes?” The Doctor asked without preamble. “You said they’d make me angry. How did you know?”

“It’s my Thief,” she said cryptically. She looked at Rose next. “And my Wolf.”

Rose reached out telepathically even as the Doctor asked who she was. She felt the bright gold of the TARDIS Matrix respond to her call. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Do you not know me?” Idris asked the Doctor. “Just because they put me in here?”

“They said you were dangerous.”

“Not the cage, stupid. In _here_.” She gestured at herself.

“Our TARDIS,” Rose whispered.

“Yes, exactly!” she sounded excited. “It’s me, I’m the TARDIS.”

“That’s… not possible.”

“I was already a museum piece when you were young, and when you touched me, you said-”

“I said you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.” He shook his head. “My TARDIS.”

“My Doctor,” she whispered back. “You stole me, and I stole you.”

Rose smiled and moved forward, picking the lock open. The door swung open effortlessly. “You were removed from your shell, and me, and popped in here, weren’t you?” she asked.

“Correct,” the TARDIS said with a smile. “Not the best thing that happened to me, but certainly not the worst,” with a pointed look at the Doctor.

“I never – look, we don’t have the time for this.”

“House eats TARDISes,” she said helpfully.

“What?”

“What are fish fingers?”

“When do I say that?”

“Any second…”

“House must feed off of rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it,” Rose realised.

“And not raw, all lovely and cooked. Mm, fish fingers.”

“Do fish have fingers?”

“But you can’t eat a TARDIS,” he mused. “It would destroy you.”

“Unless, you deleted the TARDIS Matrix first,” Rose said.

“So it deleted you.”

“But House can’t just delete a TARDIS’ consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out a Matrix, gets two, sticks it in a living receptacle and then it feeds off of the remaining Artron energy.” Rose and the Doctor stared at her. “Oh, you were about to say all that. I don’t suppose you have to now.”

Rose gasped, a hand flew to her mouth. “Doctor – Amy and Rory.”

“They’ll be eaten!”

...

“We need to go where I landed,” the TARDIS told Rose.

“Okay, how come?”

“Because that’s where we’ll be, three minutes from now. Ow…” she bent over, clutching her side. “Roughly how long do these bodies last?”

“You’re dying,” Rose realised.

The TARDIS’s gaze softened, and she cupped her Wolf’s cheek gently. “I don’t belong in a flesh body. I could bow the casing in no time. No, stop it,” she said, as Rose’s expression fell, “don’t feel sad. You’ll still have me, just… not like this.”

“Ooh!” The Doctor’s cry distracted them both, and they looked over to where he was pointing at the junkyard before them. “See that junkyard?”

They nodded. “That’s not a junkyard,” he said. Rose raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with the TARDIS that was dryer than a desert. “Okay, it is,” he amended. “It’s a TARDIS junkyard. I can rebuild a working TARDIS console from the pieces.”

The TARDIS hiked up her skirts. “I see why you prefer trousers,” she told Rose. “These things are incredibly obstructive.”

“That’ll be the crinoline,” she said with a grin. “You kept landing us in Victorian London when we were in Pete’s universe.”

“I hope this isn’t payback.” She looked around at the miles of metal parts, feeling what she assumed was melancholy and _grief_ tearing through her. Rose rested a hand on her shoulder. “My sisters,” she whispered mournfully. “They’re all gone, all devoured. I’m the last one.”

“Darling…” she could tell that Rose didn’t know what to say, and that she would try nonetheless. She’d already done so, no, wait, she was going to. Time was strange, everything was so _linear_. She hissed as a tremor ran through her. She existed throughout time, a corporeal body wasn’t meant for her.

She was going to make the most of what little time she had.

...

“Bond the tube directly into the Tachyon Diverter,” the TARDIS instructed.

“You know I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, right?”

Rose grinned as she followed Idris’ instructions. She was quite familiar with the workings of the time ship, but not so much as to know how to build one from scratch.

“You’re like a nine-year-old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom. And you _never_ read the instructions.”

“I always read the instructions,” was the petulant reply.

“There’s a sign on my front door. You’ve been walking past it for seven hundred years. What does it say?”

“That’s not instructions.”

“There’s an instruction at the bottom. What does it say?”

“Pull to open.” The Doctor hauled a piece of the console towards the pair. It creaked and screeched, causing them to wince.

“And what do you do?”

“I _push_!” The Doctor shove away the piece and glared at Idris.

“Every single time. Seven hundred years. Police box doors open _out_ the way.”

“She’s got a point, Doctor,” Rose said, far too amused by the entire situation. “You threw an instruction manual into a supernova once, don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

“But- oh, fine.”

“Doctor, I know you’re worried about Amy and Rory, and the fact that House has stolen our Old Girl’s shell and escaped with it, but think about it this way. We’re actually _talking_. We’re talking to our TARDIS.”

“We are, aren’t we?” he mused. “Look at us. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could always talk, even when you’re stuck inside the box?”

“You know I’m not constructed that way. I exist across all of space and time, and you talk and run around and bring home companions.”

“Yeah,” Rose said, “but you’re our home. You’re so important to us,” Rose continued, “and we haven’t really spoken to you before.”

Idris smiled, before her knees buckled. Rose and the Doctor ran forward to catch her. “Are you all right?”

“One of the kidneys has failed already,” she murmured. “It doesn’t matter. We need to finish assembling the console.” She then surprised them by hugging them tightly. They melted into the embrace and held her back just as tightly. “My Wolf, my Thief,” she murmured. “I believe we have reached the point where I officiate your bonding ceremony.”

They stared at her in shock. “I…” The Doctor turned to Rose. “I know I haven’t discussed it with you…”

“You did, in Pete’s Universe. I know what it means to you, Doctor, and it’s all I had wanted with – with…”

The Doctor’s eyes were filled with sadness and raw hope. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“This can’t be broken, or taken back.”

“I don’t want to take it back. We’ve been married for years. I mean this you and this me. You performed the human ceremony then, and I want… I want the Time Lord one.”

The Doctor laughed, a beautiful sound filled with wonder. “Rose Tyler, you will never stop surprising me.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m here to stay.”

They turned to Idris, who was watching them neutrally. “Marry us,” they said in unison.

...

They didn’t have much time. The TARDIS was getting further away from them by the minute, and Idris wouldn’t last for longer as the TARDIS’ vessel. However, this meant enough to them that they were willing to speed up the process. It helped that the Matrix flowed out of Idris partially and wrapped the trio in a time bubble while they performed the ceremony.

The couple stood before Idris/the TARDIS, facing each other and holding hands. Idris raised a hand, and a thin band of gold circled around their wrists. The ends drooped downwards, like a ribbon or delicate fabric. “The power of Time,” the Doctor said in awe. “Usually we just use a gold ribbon.”

Rose just smiled.

“This ceremony will be entirely telepathic,” Idris declared. “A bond between two minds, a promise to stay together,” a smile tugged at her lips, “forever.”

The pair looked ecstatic.

“The two of you have already spoken your vows to remain at the other’s side, and have proven that, against all odds, you will find each other once more. Do you thus renew your vows, taken at the human ceremony that binds not your minds, but your hearts?”

“I do,” Rose said, and the Doctor repeated her words softly.

“Do you swear to stay together through the all lifetimes that you have been promised?”

“I do.”

“Then we may proceed.” They all closed their eyes, and the TARDIS swirled around their telepathic consciousnesses, loving and protective. _Doctor, you may begin._

The Doctor reached out to Rose’s consciousness and began to weave his own around it, the bright blue trails mingling with her deep pink-gold. Finally, he reached her telepathic center, hovering by it and waiting for her to do her part.

Rose, with the TARDIS’ help, wove her consciousness around the Doctors. She could feel his mental barriers meld with hers, their minds intertwining as one. When she reached his telepathic center, she stopped.

Now, it was the TARDIS’ turn as officiant to seal the couple’s promise of forever, which she did with an indescribable joy. _Bondmates,_ she whispered against their minds, before retreating to her host. The Doctor and Rose blinked at the change, and the euphoria that accompanied it, before catching the other’s lips in a searing kiss.

...

“You need to install the Time Rotor,” Idris instructed them.

Rose was finding assembling the TARDIS much easier with the Doctor’s experience at the back of her mind. She took care not to peek into the memories, since that was considered rude without the other’s permission, but used his centuries of knowledge to assist her along the way.

“How is this going to make it through the time rift?” the Doctor grumbled.

“We’re almost done, anyhow,” Rose pointed out.

“Hmm. Thrust diffuser? Okay, er, retroscope. Blue thingy.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “You have to be more specific.”

“Do you know why I chose you all those years ago?” Idris asked the Doctor.

“ _I_ chose you. You were unlocked.”

“Of course I was. I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.” She turned to Rose. “And you, my Wolf… the minute you stepped inside me, I knew that I couldn’t let you go.”

“My TARDIS,” Rose said fondly. “I could never let you go either.”

“All done! Let’s follow that TARDIS,” the Doctor announced, throwing a lever.

Nothing happened.

“Oh, come on, there’s rift energy everywhere!”

“Doctor…”

“Diverting all power to thrust…”

“Doctor!”

“What?”

“It won’t be able to hold the charge,” Rose said. “Remember what you said when we were stuck near that black hole? That TARDISes had to be grown?”

The Doctor sighed. “Yeah, but I hoped… I’ve – I’ve got nothing.”

Rose broadcasted reassurances over their new bond, and was gladdened by the way the Doctor relaxed considerably.

Idris laughed, a beautiful sound like tinkling glass. “Oh, my wonderful idiot, you have what you’ve always had.”

Rose’s eyes started to glow, and she grinned.

“You’ve got me,” said Bad Wolf.

The Matrix swirled through Rose once, before leaving and filling up the console. Rose laughed, suddenly giddy from the movement. She could have sworn that the TARDIS had brushed across her consciousness, almost like a caress, as she left her.

The sounds of the TARDIS filled the air, and they dematerialized.

...

The Doctor and Rose whooped in exhilaration as they flew past the bubble into the prime universe. Energy flooded through Rose, she was finally back in her universe after so long, and she was with her Doctor and her TARDIS.

_Their_ TARDIS.

“Can you get a message to Amy? The telepathic circuits are online.”

“Which one’s Amy?” Idris yelled. “The pretty one?”

The Doctor blinked. “Er, I suppose?”

 

“ _Agh!”_

_“Rory? What’s wrong?”_

_“I think I’m getting a message.”_

_“A what?”_

_“Hello, Pretty,” Idris called._

_Rory blinked as the Doctor came into view. “What the hell is that?” he mumbled._

_“Don’t worry, it’s just telepathic messaging,” the Doctor assured him, before doing a double-take. “Wait, that’s Rory.”_

_“You have to go to the old control room. I’m putting the route in your head. When you get there, use the purple slider on the nearest panel to lower the shields,” Idris instructed._

_“The pretty one?” The Doctor called, sounding thoroughly distracted._

_“You’ll have about twelve seconds before the room goes into phase with the invading Matrix. I’ll send you the pass key when you get there. Good luck.”_

_The image faded._

_“What was that?” Amy asked._

_“It was the Doctor, and that other woman. Idris, I think her name was.”_

_“Was Rose there?”_

_“Er, I think so. We have to keep going.”_

 

“How’s he going to be able to take down those shields anyway? The House is in the control room.”

“I directed him to one of the old control rooms.”

“There aren’t any old control rooms. They were all deleted or remodeled.”

“Oh, no, I archive them for neatness,” Idris said cheerfully. “I’ve got about thirty now.”

“But I’ve only changed the desktop, what, a dozen times?”

“So far, yes.”

“You can’t archive something that hasn’t happened yet!”

Rose stared at him, aware of the waves of incredulity flowing off of her.

“ _You_ can’t,” Idris replied.

The Doctor blinked and frowned. Rose took pity on him. _All over time and space, remember?_

_Right._

...

The console materialized in a shower of sparks. The Doctor, Idris, and Rose held onto each other as they were tossed around roughly during the landing.

They stumbled off the metal plate. Rose caught Idris as her knees buckled. “Not good, not good at all. How do you walk in these things?” she asked breathlessly.

“Hello, Ponds, this is my TARDIS. And she’s a woman.” The Doctor frowned at the explanation. “She’s a woman and she’s a TARDIS.”

“Right,” Amy said.

“And I might have gotten married again along the way.”

“ _Right_.” Amy turned to Rose. “Congraulations,” she said warmly.

“Thank you, Amy.”

“Uh, what happened to Nephew?” Rory asked.

“He was standing right where you materialized,” Amy said.

The Doctor exchanged a look with Rose, filled with regret. “Another Ood I failed to save,” he muttered. Rose squeezed his hand gently. “Not your fault,” she reminded him.

“Doctor,” House rumbled. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“That’s literally it, though,” Rose said dryly. The Doctor laughed. “That’s it exactly.”

“Hmm, well, I suppose the big question is, how do I dispose of you? Play with gravity? Or evacuate the air from this room?”

“You really don’t want to do that,” the Doctor snarled.

Idris collapsed. Rory ran over to her and he and Rose bent over her concernedly, tuning out his conversation with House. “Doctor, she’s burning up,” he called out.

“Hang in there, darling,” Rose whispered. “It’ll be over soon.”

“What do you mean?” Rory asked her.

“The TARDIS isn’t meant to be in a flesh body.”

“So… she’s dying?”

Rose shrugged. “She’s held out this far.” Her voice cracked. “She’ll try to stay longer, though I don’t know how long that is.”

Idris coughed. “Steady, Old Girl,” Rose muttered.

She smiled. “I always liked it when you both called my Old Girl,” she said hoarsely. Tears welled up in Rose’s eyes. Idris reached up and cupped her cheek. “Hush, no tears,” she reassured her. “I’m right here.”

“Hmm, I can delete rooms,” House decided. “And I can also rid myself of vermin if I delete this room first. Goodbye, Time Lord. Or, should I say, _Time Lords_. Goodbye, little humans. Goodbye, _Idris_.”

...

The new console room was different, Rose thought. It wasn’t bad, just… different. She realised that she was being repetitive, but she got the feeling that the console room would be a lot warmer when House vacated the TARDIS.

“I mean, you could just do that, but it wouldn’t work. Living things from rooms that are deleted automatically appear in the main control room. But thanks for the lift.”

“And why should it matter to me in which room you die, Doctor? I can kill you just as easily anywhere. Fear me, I’ve killed hundreds of Time Lords.”

“Fear me,” the Doctor said darkly, “I killed them all.”

“Doctor…”

“No, this is actually – we should applaud for you right there, since you have managed to defeat us all,” Rose said with more than a hint of sarcasm. House didn’t seem to notice. “Amy, let’s give House a hand, shall we?”

“Bravo,” Amy deadpanned, while slow-clapping.

“Doctor, she stopped breathing,” Rory said quietly. Amy was at his side immediately – Rory was a gentle soul, and he felt the loss of a patient as his own.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Rose shouted. “You drove the TARDIS’s soul, the Matrix, out of this very control room, so that she could burn out safely away from here. A flesh body can’t hold the TARDIS and live. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“You think I should _mourn_ her?”

“Quite the opposite, actually,” Rose said. “You should have been more careful about who you let into your control room.”

Idris exhaled gold light, a lot like the Doctor had after his regeneration, but instead of dispersing, it swirled in tendrils and dove into the central panel. The display was stunning, and Rose knew that the swell of pride she felt was not just hers.

“Bigger on the inside,” the Doctor said softly.

“Finish him off, Old Girl,” Rose encouraged.

The TARDIS brushed against their consciousness and shot through the rotor with wicked precision. With a cry, all presence of House vanished, leaving a small figure wreathed in golden light on the steps.

“Doctor. Rose.”

Idris’ voice was ethereal, ringed with a power Rose knew to be the TARDIS’.

“I’m here,” he said softly.

“I’ve been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, both sad and happy. I’ve found it now.”

“What word?” Rose asked.

“ _Alive_.” She smiled. “I’m _alive,_ my Rose, my Doctor.”

The Doctor’s eyes were shining with tears. Rose stepped forward to hold his hand, gazing up at their beautiful TARDIS.

“I’ll always be here,” she assured them, “but this is when we talked, and now even that has come to an end. There’s something I didn’t get to say to you.”

“Goodbye?” The Doctor whispered, and Rose’s heart shattered. How could a single word sound so broken?

“No, actually. I just wanted to say hello.”

The Doctor shuddered. “Please-”

“It’s so, very, very nice to meet you both.”

“I don’t want you to,” he pleaded.

Idris smiled and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Her thumb brushed against his cheek in a trail of stardust. “No tears, my Doctor,” she soothed. “I will always be here.”

With that, she faded into the shadows.


End file.
